Remember...

Tonight at the hospital there was a memorial service for all of the people who died on the palliative care unit in the past year. It was a nice service: ecumenical, short, but meditative and meaningful. As I was listening to all of the names listed off, I thought it was nice to remember people and how they were loved.

But then I looked around, and realized how many people were in the audience compared to how many people were on the list. And remembered that many people die alone, or with hardly anyone to remember them. Or perhaps something that happened during their life estranged everyone who knew them. So how did I know they were all loved? Maybe some of them weren't.

And then as I thought about that, I remember that I believe that there is someone to love everyone. Everyone has at least someone who loves them, even if they don't love that someone back. And that is the beauty of God's love: no one dies without Someone loving them.

So each of those names, even if I couldn't see someone in the audience, was loved. And it was a long list.